Description: Roman free blown flask made from olive green glass. The corpus of the body is of a somewhat flattened bulbous form. The bottom has a kick-in base with a visible pontil mark. At the shoulder of the corpus two handles have been attached. These having the typical form for the area in which these objects were made being loops first attached to the corpus and than with multiple loops pulled out to the neck connecting to the multi-spiral thread around the top of the neck. The handles differ in form where the one on the right in this picture is more fragile in form than the other. The splayed out rim has on the underside an additional glass thread to provide extra strength to the rim. The outer edge of the rim has been folded inward.

Technique: Tooled.Classification: Isings (1957) form 79.Description: Transparent bluish-green glass. Rod with one end tooled into a flat disk, the other formed into a loop or ring handle by bending the rod round a full 360 degrees and attaching it to the top of the straight shaft of the rod. Decorated with a spirally twisted thin opaque white thread.Condition: Intact with a tiny chip at the disk.Remarks: The use of a stirring rod is unknown. Maybe the rod was indeed used as stirring rod for mixing water through the wine because Romans only drank wine diluted with water. The rod could also be used to get ointment out of a jar or to mix small quantities of medicines or cosmetics. Some scholars think that this specific form has a symbolical sense. The spirally twisted thread is symbolic for the thread of life, from birth till death. The ring can be regarded as symbol for the eternity after the death.Provenance: 2008 Kunsthandel Mieke Zilverberg, Amsterdam.
Sixties – 1984 Private collection Mr. F. (1909 – 1984), Surrey (England).Published: Romeins glas uit particulier bezit (J. van der Groen & H. van Rossum, 2011).Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), “Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit”,
29 April – 28 August 2011, exp. no. 258Reference: Gläser der Antike – Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (A. von Saldern, 1974), no. 619; Antike Gläser – Ausstellung im Antikenmuseum Berlin (G. Platz-Horster, 1975), no. 117; Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of Antiquities (S. Auth, 1976), no. 521; The Constable–Maxwell Collection of Ancient Glass – The Property of Mr and Mrs Andrew Constable-Maxwell (Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co. London, 1979), no. 200 and no. 201; Ancient Glass of Asia Minor – The Yüksel Erimtan Collection (C. Lightfoot & M. Arslan, 1992), no. 147; Ancient Glass in the Hermitage collection (N. Kunina, 1997), no. 81, no. 82 and no. 83.

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Posted in Uncategorized by Allaire Collection of Glass on March 26, 2016

NINETEEN FRAGMENTS OF EGYPTIAN FLORAL GLASS INLAYS OR PLAQUES of David Giles

EGYPTIAN FLORAL GLASS INLAYS OR PLAQUES

Origin and Date:These nineteen fragments of Egyptian Floral glass inlays or plaques are from the Hellenistic or early Roman period 2nd century BC/1st century AD.

Size: Largest 7cm long

Manufacture method: Mosaic technique with bundles of coloured canes fused together to form floral images of plants and flowers and then embedded in a matrix of blue grey glass. After polishing each plaque is about 5mm thickness.

Remarks: Whole plaques would have been rectangle in shape and about 12 to 15cm in height with a width of 6 to 7cm. No absolutely complete plaque as ever been found but some nearly complete. As none have been found in situ the exact purpose of them is unknown but it can be assumed that they are inlays for furniture. All archaeological examples have been found in sites in Egypt with the exception of one found in the Galilee in Israel.

Description: Transparent bluish-green glass, small bi-conical drop-shaped body with long tubular neck, constriction at the junction with the body. Encircling with three applied coils. Base solid and indented, broken off roughly from pontil, on the body a zigzag spiral trail in deep turquoise glass and four revolutions of a fine spiral trail. Circular handle of thick coil attached to both sides of the rim.

Condition: Intact

Remarks: It is unknown what this unguentarium was used for. It is suggested that unguentaria like this one were used by the Roman senators to vote in the Senate. Another assumption is that they were used to measure, how much water had been added to the wine by judging the resistance to it being sunk into the wine, measuring the viscosity. The rings may have served as measuring points. And there is the striking resemblance between the calamistrumand this unguentarium. The most involved operation during Roman times was the curling of the hair, for which the calamistrum was used. This calamistrumwas a metal tool, which female slaves heated in a metal sheath buried in hot ash, and around which the ornatrix skillfully twisted the hair. The most striking features with this metal example are the circular handle, the long neck and the rings as decoration of the neck and the oval body. It is not obvious that the glass example was used to curl the hair but perhaps this unguentarium had also a function within the mode of the hair during ancient times or this glass variant of the metal tool was given as a gift for the deceased woman, to serve as a nice reminder to the profession she exercised. Who knows!! Below is a drawing of a metal calamistrum and a Roman woman using it to curl her hair.

Remarks: Most thin-walled aryballoi are bichrome or polychrome, the body is one-color and the handles and/or rim are of a contrasting color. Bifurcated handles are specific characteristics for early blown aryballoi.

Description: Transparent amber colored glass, low-bellied and pear-shaped body, tapering to a narrow cylindrical neck, wide flattened mouth and rim folded inward. The base pushed in and tooled to form a hollow tubular base ring, rest of pontil. Handle of olive green glass, applied on the lower part of body, drawn up, making a construction and attached to edge of rim at right angle.

Condition: Intact, perfect condition

Remarks: In Roman times the common name for this type of jug was lagoena. The name was used for a jug made of pottery, silver,bronze or glass with the following and specific

Characteristics: a narrow neck, a bellied body and one or two handles. (Hilgers 1969) It is fascinating to see how the glass blower worked with too much glass for the handle, more than he needed but he used it all.

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